In the spring of 2022, I read the book The Cloudspotter's Guide: The Science, History, and Culture of Clouds by Gavin Pretor-Pinney. This book is a wonderful combination of scientific fact and memoir. The author does well to draw you in with stories about cloud chasers and people who fell through clouds, all the while adding science within the mix. I was left with a better understanding of how clouds are formed and a new sense of wonder about our skies.
Did you know that each droplet in a cloud has a diameter of about a hundredth of a millimeter and each cubic meter of air will contain 100 million droplets?
I sure didn't.
But if we do some simple math here. And let's say we have a small cloud of 10 cubic meters. That means this cloud has 1 billion water droplets in it. Obviously a 10 cubic meter cloud is tiny in comparison to actual clouds in the sky. So it seems to reason that there are an indescribably large amount of water droplets to form just one solitary cloud.
Why do I go on about the number droplets?
I start to realize how complex and extraordinary our skies really are. They seem to exist in a whole other plane of complexity that I don't fully understand.
In my little brain, I think, "Clouds=Rain= good things for me and plants."
But clouds are so much more than this. There is a complex back and forth of perfect temperatures and humidity. It is a dance of wind and air and particles that creates these beautiful giants that leap across our sky.
So what's the point?
Clouds blow my mind. Really, I have a hard time fathoming how it all works together. And it is glorious that it all works together. This wonder leads me to be in awe of God who created all these things.
How true the verse rings,
The heavens declare the glories of God
The sky above proclaims his handiwork (Ps 19:1)
Clouds take me to awe. They take me to wonder. I am blown into a frenzy of wondering how it is all possible. As the clouds form each and every day, my fascination has not waned but instead increases. What a marvelous thing to see such beauty every day.
I see clouds as beautiful miracles reminding us of our smallness on Earth. For it is not that Earth, herself, is great. But the greatness comes from the one who created her.
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